History of the Dewar Trophy

The Dewar Trophy was presented to the Royal Automobile Club in 1904 by Sir Thomas Dewar, MP (later Lord Dewar), and was to be awarded at the discretion of the Club’s Technical Committee for the most meritorious performance by an automobile manufacturer in the Certified Trials held by the Club.

The first recipients of the award in 1906 were Dennis Brothers Limited of Guildford, whose 20hp car covered a distance of 4000 miles. It was awarded 19 times during the years 1906 to 1929, there being some years when it was considered that no performance had been recorded of sufficient merit to warrant the award.

In 1931 the award was updated to reflect ‘the most outstanding technical achievement accomplished during that year under the competition rules of the Club’. No award was made under these new terms, however, until 1950 – when it went to the Rover Company for the production and performance of the Rover Gas Turbine Powered Car.

The Trophy was not awarded again until 1957, at which time the terms were again changed to those which prevail to this day, namely: ‘for an outstanding British technical achievement in the automotive field during the preceding year’.